By Christopher Troy
C-C-C-C-C-C-C-combo Breaker!
As I said last week, the 4th Meister’s gunpla should be in my hand in a few weeks, so we’re gonna take a break and focus on something not particularly Gundam, the Zaku! And instead of going with a mass produced unit from one of the various series the unit appears is, I’m gonna go with 2 specific customs units; Lunamaria Hawke’s custom unit from Gundam SEED Destiny, and Char’s Custom Zaku II from Mobile Suit Gundam.
We’re start with Lunamaria’s Zaku unit, because I’m a gentleman, and lady’s first. Also the fact that I’m still building the Zaku II.
This is the custom Gunner Zaku Warrior:
And this is Lunamaria!
She’s a bit pouty in this particular pic. But this is the only work safe pic that google came up with. Silly Japan smut!
On top, this is the complete 1/144th scale Gunner Zaku Custom:
One reason this particular Zaku is classified as a Lunamaria custom unit is the color scheme:the red/pink/white color scheme is unique to her unit in the SEED Destiny universe. Char was the first pilot to have himself a red Zaku in the Gundam franchise, what with him being nicknamed “The Red Comet” and all that. That sort of thing makes sense doesn’t it?
The other reason why it’s called the Gunner custom is the fact that it comes strapped with the Artillery Wizard, packing a high energy, long-range beam cannon, the m1500 Orthros, and high-capacity energy tank. We’ll look into more later on in this review.
Like any good Zaku, Lunamaria’s unit comes with the axe-like Heat Hawk as well as a sweet little machine gun, in case, you know, the big ass beam cannon wasn’t enough.
Both weapons were a breeze to assemble, and fit the Zaku’s hands quite easily, which is nice. Speaking of hands, the Gunner Zaku also comes with 2 alternative “trigger finger” hands to swap out, which only makes sense, as it’s, you know, a GUNNER Zaku.
This is the shield that the Zaku comes with, and I have to admit, the color scheme is sharp. The pinkish/red goes well with the white, and the shape, spiked weapon makes for a design that fits the SEED universe, versus the tiny block shield that came with the original Zaku (which we’ll cover when I review Char’s.) Also worth noting that underneath the shield, and extra ammo clip for the Zaku’s machine gun is there, which is a really cool addition, and again, makes a ton of sense for a GUNNER Zaku. My only complain is that the ball joints that the shield snaps onto are a bit flimsy at times, so you make fine yourself reconnecting it every so often.
The m1500 Orthros is shown above, and much like the longe range rifles seen from the OO reviews, they both fold up and a mounted on the shoulder of the Zaku. The “cable” that connects from rifle to the backpack is also has a habit of slipping out of it’s respected slots, but it’s actually easy to get back in there.
The Gunner Zaku Warrior Lunamaria kit is definitely one of the few good things, at least in my opinion, that came from SEED Destiny. You certainly get your monies worth, even with a low price tag. We’ll see if this value passes on with Char next time.
